Adoptive Parent Corruption Story: China

As a followup to last week’s New York Times piece on China adoption corruption that we covered here, the reporter now goes in depth about an adoptive parent’s journey to find the truth in One Answer to Adoption’s Difficult Questions [City Room New York Times Blog 9/26/11 by John Leland]

This is a must-read to understand the difficulties of discovering of trying to trace back what actually happened to the adoptee.

The adoptive parent uses Brian Stuy’s Research-China.org to try to find answers for her daughter. A few excerpts are below:

“What they found was bad news: the orphanage’s outplacement patterns were similar to those of six orphanages in Hunan Province that had been discovered buying babies from other orphanages and placing them with foreign families, said Brian Stuy, a founder of China-Research.

The pattern — a rapid uptick in the number of children placed with foreign families, followed by an even more severe falloff after the Chinese government cracked down on traffickers — was “a very telling indicator that the orphanage was involved in trafficking,” Mr. Stuy said. The chances of finding a child’s birth family under such circumstances were slim.”

Typical Adoption Industry Response

“Since her return, the woman said, the director of her adoption agency assured her that he had “complete faith” in the Chinese program and government. She declined to name the agency because it would make her identifiable, she said.”

Justifiably Angry

“In a late-night phone call, the woman remained angry: at the parents and agencies that trust the Chinese government; at the United States State Department for not applying more pressure; at the peers who discouraged her from speaking out, telling her, “I don’t want my daughter asking those questions,” she said.

But even her anger provided no easy answers, she said. It could not raise her daughter, or protect the other children in the system.

“The program needs to be shut down,” she said. “But part of me says, I want those kids out of there.”

This week, as we approach the close of the 60-day window that Guatemalan APs have to return Anyeli , we will discuss international adoption red flags and considerations about what to do if you suspect your child has been trafficked.